Two Congressmen from Texas came together
in a bipartisan effort to support graduate medical education (GME) programs that
care for our nation’s youngest patients. GME is funded through Medicare, Medicaid,
the Department of Veterans Affairs, and the Health Resources and Services Administration
(HRSA). HRSA administers the Children’s Hospitals Graduate Medical Education
Payment (CHGME) Program and the Teaching Health Center Graduate Medical Education
(THCGME) Program.
According to the GAO, federal
agencies and state Medicaid agencies spent over $16.3 billion on GME training
in 2015 through these five federal programs and 45 state Medicaid agencies. H.R.
5385, the Children's Hospital GME Support Reauthorization Act of
2018, will reauthorize the program of payments to children’s hospitals that
operate GME programs, that train resident physicians and dentists. The legislation
introduced by Reps. Gene Green (D-TX) and Michael Burgess (R-TX) will
reauthorize payments to CHGME programs at $330 million a year for five years.